Online Library of Selected Images:
-- U.S. NAVY SHIPS --

USS Iowa, a 11,410-ton battleship built at Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, was commissioned in June 1897. She operated along
the Atlantic seaboard for the rest of that year and into 1898.
During the Spanish-American War Iowa served off Cuba and
on 3 July 1898 played an important role in the Battle of Santiago,
an action that destroyed Spain's naval power in the Western Hemisphere.
In October of that year, a few months after the conflict's end,
the battleship was sent around South America to join the Pacific
Squadron. She served along the West Coast until February 1902,
when she began a year with the South Atlantic Squadron.

Iowa's return to the U.S. Atlantic Coast in early 1903
was followed by an overhaul and, from late 1903 until mid-1907,
active service with the North Atlantic Fleet. She was then placed
in reserve, recommissioning in May 1910 after a modernization
that gave her a new "cage" mainmast. The next four years
were spent on training service, including taking Naval Academy
Midshipmen to European waters . Again out of commission from May
1914 until April 1917, Iowa was employed during the First
World War as Receiving Ship at the Philadelphia Navy Yard and
as a training and guard ship in the Chesapeake Bay region.

Decommissioned at the end of March 1919, the now thoroughly-obsolete
Iowa was renamed Coast Battleship No. 4 a month
later in order to free her name for use on the new South
Dakota class battleship BB-53. In 1920 the old warrior
was converted to the Navy's pioneer radio-controlled target ship.
While serving in this role, she was sunk by the guns of USS Mississippi in March 1923.

This page features selected views of USS Iowa (Battleship
# 4) as she was from 1897 to 1909, and provides links to other
views concerning this ship, both as a battleship and as a target
ship.